Two New Suspects Linked by U.S. to Terror Case

By BENJAMIN WEISER

EW YORK -- Federal authorities charged on Thursday that the
bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kenya last month was orchestrated by
an Islamic extremist from the island nation of Comoros who reported
directly to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile who is now the focus
of the world-wide inquiry.

Broadening the case against bin Laden's organization, the
government offered a $2 million reward for information leading to
the arrest of Haroun Fazil, who has been eluding authorities since
a warrant was issued for his arrest late last month.

Fazil has been accused of 12 counts of murder, one for each
American who died in the Kenyan embassy; murder conspiracy, and the
use of weapons of mass destruction. He could face life imprisonment
or the death penalty if convicted.

Federal officials also said they had arrested a man whom they
described as the former personal secretary to bin Laden when both
men lived in the Sudan in 1994. The defendant, Wadih el Hage, of
Arlington, Texas, is the first American citizen known to have been
charged in the investigation of bin Laden and the embassy attacks.

El Hage appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan
late on Thursday and was charged with three counts of making false
statements to investigators. A federal prosecutor, Patrick
Fitzgerald, told the magistrate that the government would indict el
Hage on new charges by Monday, and he was ordered held without
bond. His lawyer, Bruce McIntyre, had no comment.

The charges disclosed on Thursday by Mary Jo White, the U.S.
attorney in Manhattan, and Lewis Schiliro, assistant director of
the FBI in New York, show now more clearly how investigators are
methodically building the case against bin Laden, his operatives
and lieutenants.

Bin Laden was charged in a sealed indictment earlier this year
that accused him of various acts of terrorism. The government has
not said when or whether it plans an indictment in the bombings.

Ms. White said that Fazil was "a very active member of the
Kenyan cell" of bin Laden's terrorist group. "He's an allegedly
major player in the organization," Ms. White said.

Schiliro said that the new charges "will get us closer to a
resolution of this case, but it is by no means ended."

The announcements on Thursday also shed light on the
investigation of bin Laden that dates back to before the nearly
simultaneous attacks in Kenya and Tanzania. In those attacks, on
Aug. 7, more than 250 people died, 12 of them Americans, and
thousands of people were wounded.

A federal complaint unsealed on Thursday shows that el Hage was
interviewed by the authorities in New York as early as September
1997, and questioned about bin Laden's activities and his
associates.

At the time, the complaint says, el Hage admitted to having
worked as bin Laden's personal secretary, and also to knowing two
of his top military commanders, identified as Abu Ubaidah al
Banshiri and Abu Hafs el Masry.

Al Banshiri drowned in a ferry accident in East Africa in 1996,
the court papers said, but they offered few other details about
either men.

Schiliro would not say where the authorities believe Fazil has
fled, or how he may have left the Comoros islands, which are in the
Indian Ocean southeast of Tanzania and Kenya. Earlier this month,
the FBI and the Comoros police raided two homes on the island of
Moroni, looking for Fazil, and also questioned his wife.

The authorities described Fazil as an explosives expert in his
mid-20s who speaks fluent French, Swahili, Arabic, and English, and
is adept with computers.

Although the federal complaint did not describe precisely
Fazil's rank in Bin Laden's organization, it suggested that his
role in the Nairobi attack was more significant than any of the
three other defendants who have been arrested and are being held in
Manhattan.

The federal complaint said that Fazil's duties in al Qaeda
included the preparation of various reports for bin Laden and his
top lieutenants. In the Kenyan bombing, Fazil was accused of
renting the room in the Hilltop Hotel in Nairobi where
investigators believe that the bomb was constructed, and of hiring
two people to clean the room after the attack.

On Aug. 7, the day of the attack, the government said, Fazil
drove a white pick-up truck which led another vehicle, which was
carrying the bomb, to the embassy site in Nairobi.

Prosecutors did not directly accuse el Hage of a role in the
embassy bombings. But the documents say that Fazil and el Hage, the
Texan, were close, and that the two shared a house last year in
Nairobi. El Hage moved to Kenya from the Sudan in 1994, the
government said, before returning to the United States in 1997.

El Hage did not speak in court on Thursday, but his supervisor
at the Fort Worth, company where he works, Lone Star Wheels and
Tires, said that el Hage told him on Monday that he had to take
care of personal business in New York, and would return in two
days.

He left that afternoon on a 4:30 plane and the supervisor,
Mahmoud Mazouni, said that el Hage did not appear nervous or
troubled.

He described el Hage as a quiet and conscientious employee who
prayed several times a day in a back room, and avoided discussions
of politics or his feelings about the U.S. government.

"He mostly talked about his kids," Mazouni said. "If he had
any secrets, he didn't let anyone here know."

In a court disclosure form, el Hage wrote that he was married
and had seven children, whose ages ranged from 12 years to several
months.

His wife, April Ray, said in an interview on Thursday night at
the family's apartment in a modest, two-story building near the
University of Texas at Arlington that she had just learned of her
husband's arrest.

"I'm pretty much shellshocked," she said through tears. "I
just barely heard what's going on, and I'm having a hard time
dealing with it." She declined to answer questions about her
husband.

Prosecutors said that el Hage is an American citizen. They said
in court papers that el Hage had told investigators that he once
worked in Kuwait, and studied city planning in Louisiana.

The authorities said that after the August attacks, the Kenyan
authorities, in the presence of FBI agents, searched a home in
Nairobi, and seized files that included phone bills belonging to el
Hage. They said they also found a receipt for an item which
appeared to have been shipped to another defendant in the bombing
case, Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, who was arrested last month in Nairobi
and flown to Manhattan to face charges.

El Hage is the fourth suspect known to be held in Manhattan in
connection with the investigation. Late last month, Odeh and
Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali were charged with direct roles in
the attack on the embassy in Nairobi. Last Friday, another suspect
was charged in a sealed proceeding in Federal District Court, but
his identity and nationality have not been disclosed.